The Norwegian composer duo SAGN has created a musical work about humankind’s relationship to nature. The concert performance Sustain touches on some of the most central problems the world faces today. The temperature is rising, the weather is becoming more and more extreme, and newspapers claim that by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic than fish.

Sustain both disturbed and touched its audience during Scandinavia’s most prominent art festival; Bergen International Festival (Festspillene i Bergen) in May 2017. Bodil Lunde Rørtveit’s versatile voice is at the heart of the work alongside one of Europe´s most accomplished and innovative percussionists; Terje Isungset. Rørtveit´s vocal expression is characterized as fascinating and direct with great focus on soundcolour nuances. She works with extreme dynamics and a wide range, from the softest, sophisticated and most vulnarable to the raw, forceful and sometimes brutal. With her intense stage presence and vocal soundscapes, she tells universal tales of human emotions without spoken words.

Sustain came to life through a number of workshops where the musicians, composers and artistic team together investigated sounds and built new instruments. We have been on the lookout for garbage and recycled plastics at Norwegian shores and beaches, at construction sites, in stores and in our own homes. The scenography and instruments were then constructed from these materials.

The audience is invited into an an unique installation where both instruments and sourroundings are made out of plastic waste, sitting along four large tables, also used as stage elements. The musicians are placed inbetween the audience and move around in the entire room and onto the tables. The audience is surrounded by light, sound and plastic. The atmosphere is initially beautiful and harmonious before they are taken on a journey where both discomfort and feelings like inadequacy, anger, sadness and belonging are awakened.

The performance is without spoken words, expressed by music, birdlike sounds and soundscapes that give the audience space to develop their own interpretation. The musical language is inspired by world music and ancestoral music, but has great variations in genre and expressions from fragile soundscapes to suggestive rave and techno.A highlight towards the end of the performance occurs when Bodil Lunde Rørtveit through a powerful vocal performance evokes a primal scream of the earth. Wearing a deep blue plastic dress, she conjures a war torn sea goddess, emitting sounds of quivering despair and an insistent demand for change.